Thermal pressure: the heat number your Mac acts on

If you’re searching for CPU temperature in the menu bar, know this first: Multimeter doesn’t read temperature sensors. It shows thermal pressure, the four-step state macOS itself uses to decide when to slow the chip down. If you want degrees, iStat Menus and Stats show them; see the comparison.

Multimeter’s built-in faces, running live on sample data.

What macOS shows on its own

macOS doesn’t show thermal pressure anywhere in its interface. Developers can read it with ProcessInfo.thermalState, which is what Multimeter does.

How Multimeter shows it

Four steps: Nominal, Fair, Serious and Critical. A face sees them as 0, 0.33, 0.67 and 1.
It updates the moment macOS changes the state, with no polling.
Fixed alerts: warning at Serious, critical at Critical.
Why it can be the better number: a temperature tells you the chip is warm; thermal pressure tells you macOS has started holding performance back because of it.

Set it up

Choose Add Meter… and pick Thermal Pressure.
Label & Value shows the word; Needle Gauge shows the step.
Turn on the notification to hear when it reaches Critical.

Every face works with every source it lists. See all 13 faces running live.

Questions

Can Multimeter show CPU temperature?

No. It shows thermal pressure. For individual sensor temperatures use iStat Menus or Stats.

What does Serious thermal pressure mean?

macOS is reducing performance to manage heat. Expect slower builds or exports until it drops back to Fair or Nominal.

Related

Put it in your menu bar

$19.99 one-time. No subscription. 30-day refund. Needs macOS 13 Ventura or later.